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On this day: September 3

2012: Sun Myung Moon, the religious leader best known as the founder of the Unification Church and for his claim that he was a messiah, dies at age 92 in Gapyeong, South Korea, after suffering multiple organ failure.

2012: Actor Michael Clarke Duncan, best known for his Academy Award-nominated role in "The Green Mile" (pictured), as well as for roles in movies such as "Armageddon," "The Whole Nine Yards" and "Daredevil," dies at age 54 in Los Angeles, California, nearly two months after suffering a heart attack.

2006: Tennis great Andre Agassi retires from the sport after losing in the third round of the U.S. Open. He retired with 60 career titles, eight of those Grand Slam titles.

2005: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist dies from thyroid cancer at age 80 at his Arlington, Virginia, home. He first joined the Supreme Court as an associate justice in 1972, being appointed by President Richard Nixon. Rehnquist served as chief justice for nearly 19 years, making him the fourth-longest-serving chief justice after John Marshall, Roger Taney and Melville Fuller, and the longest-serving chief justice who had previously served as an associate justice.

2004: A hostage crisis in its third day at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, in Russia's Caucasus, ends with Russian security forces storming the building after several explosions are heard. A total of 334 hostages, including 186 children, and 31 hostage-takers were killed in the incident. The crisis had begun on Sept. 1 with armed Islamic separatist militants, mostly Ingush and Chechen, taking more than 1,100 people hostage, including 777 children, hostage at the school. Pictured is a memorial in the school's gym.

2001: Pauline Kael, often regarded as the most influential American film critic of her day, dies of Parkinson's disease at the age of 82 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Kael, who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991, was known for her witty, biting and highly opinionated style of writing, influencing a several generations of major film critics.

1999: Mario Lemieux's ownership group officially takes over the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins after buying the team out of bankruptcy. The then-retired Lemieux becomes the first player in the modern era of sports to buy the team he had once played for. Lemieux would come back to play with the team in 2000 before retiring for good in January 2006.

1991: Film director Frank Capra, best known for movies like "It Happened One Night" and "It's a Wonderful Life," dies of a heart attack in his sleep at the age of 94 in La Quinta, California. Capra won Academy Awards for Best Director for "It Happened One Night," "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and "You Can't Take It With You," and also earned three more nominations in his career.

1986: Snowboarder and skateboarder Shaun White, known by his nickname of "The Flying Tomato," is born in San Diego. He is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and holds the X-Games records for gold medals and highest overall medal count.

1976: The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars. The lander would operate on the surface for 1,281 Mars days before being turned off on April 11, 1980, when its batteries failed. Pictured is the first color picture it sent back from the planet.

1970: Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, who led the Green Bay Packers to three straight league championships and five in seven years, including winning the first two Super Bowls, dies from cancer at the age of 57 in Washington, D.C. The NFL's Super Bowl trophy is named in his honor.

1966: The television series "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" ends after 14 years.

1965: Actor Charlie Sheen, best known for movies such as "Platoon," "Wall Street," "Hot Shots!" and "Major League," and the TV series "Spin City," "Two and Half Men" and "Anger Management," is born Carlos Irwin Estévez in New York City.

1962: E. E. Cummings, an eminent voice of 20th century poetry, dies from a stroke at the age of 67 in North Conway, New Hampshire.

1951: The first long-running American television soap opera, "Search for Tomorrow," airs its first episode on CBS. The show would switch to NBC in 1982 and go off the air after 35 years on Dec. 26, 1986. Seen here is a scene from the first episode showing Mary Stewart as Joanne Gardner with Lynn Loring, who played her daughter, Patti.

1944: Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from the Westerbork transit camp to the Auschwitz concentration camp, arriving three days later. Frank and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died of typhus in March 1945. Pictured is a memorial to Anne and Margot Frank at the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

1943: The Allied invasion of Italy begins during World War II.

1939: At the start of World War II, France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allies. The United Kingdom and France also begin a naval blockage of Germany that would last until the end of the war.

1935: Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches a speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile more than 300 mph.

1932: Actress Eileen Brennan, best known for her Academy Award-nominated role as Capt. Doreen Lewis in "Private Benjamin," is born in Los Angeles, California. Brennan also reprised her role in the TV adaptation of "Private Benjamin," winning both a Golden Globe and Emmy for her performance, and appeared in movies such as "The Sting," "The Last Picture Show" and "Clue." She died of bladder cancer at age 80 on July 28, 2013.

1925: The USS Shenandoah, the United States' first American-built rigid airship, is destroyed in a squall line over Noble County, Ohio. Fourteen of her 42-man crew died in the crash, including her commander, Zachary Lansdowne.

1913: Actor Alan Ladd, known for movies such as "Shane," "This Gun for Hire," "The Glass Key," "The Blue Dahlia" and "The Great Gatsby" (1949), is born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He died of an accidental overdose of alcohol and three other drugs at the age of 50 on Jan. 29, 1964.

1878: More than 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collides with the SS Bywell Castle in the River Thames in England.

1875: Automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche, best known for creating the Volkswagen Beetle, the first of many Porsche automobiles and the first hybrid vehicle, is born in northern Bohemia, during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in what is today the Czech Republic.

1838: Future abolitionist Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery.

1803: English scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.

1783: The American Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain. Pictured is Benjamin West's painting of the American delegates at the treaty signing: John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens and William Temple Franklin. The British delegation refused to pose, and the painting was never completed.

1777: During the American Revolution's Battle of Cooch's Bridge, the flag of the United States is flown in battle for the first time.

1658: Oliver Cromwell, the English soldier and statesman who led parliamentary forces in the English Civil Wars, dies at age 59 in Whitehall, London, England. The most likely cause of Cromwell's death was septicaemia following a urinary infection. Cromwell was lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1653 until his death.

1189: Richard I of England (a.k.a. Richard "the Lionheart"), portrayed here in this painting by N.C. Wyeth, is crowned at London's Westminster Abbey.

A.D. 301: San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, is founded by Saint Marinus. The country is an enclaved microstate surrounded by Italy. Pictured is the highest point in the 24-square-mile nation, Monte Titano.

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